


Strained

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [33]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Families of Choice, Female Friendship, Fix-It, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Vampire Family, Vampire Politics, agency and choices!, off-screen sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-15
Updated: 2014-03-15
Packaged: 2018-01-15 19:19:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1316311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not as if Sookie and the girls coming by was a surprise, it just happened to involve the potentially worst timing ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strained

**Author's Note:**

> Part one, "Singers and the Endless Song."

Willa’s pretty sure she’s not the first one awake the next night, but she’s the first one to emerge, even after taking her sweet time getting dressed and making her bed. She likes her bedroom here, the blue-and-brown stripes that had already been installed in the leftover guest room suit her way better than the white florals she’d just never bothered to replace in her room back at her old house, and she’s making a point of treating it nice, like she’s still a guest even though this is her house now. (Isn’t it?)

Pam and Tara’s room has an elegant-looking “do not disturb” sign hung on the door handle (it actually seems homemade, which Willa wouldn’t have pegged Pam for being into, but as such it’s kinda endearing to her) and though she can’t really _hear_ what’s going on in Eric and Nora’s room the door handle is actually shaking when she walks by, so she figures that’s more or less out of the question, too.

Jessica’s door is cracked, though, and Willa’s about to pop in and ask did she wanna braid each other’s hair or something before the others showed up (strictly speaking Pam’s her sister now, but Jessica is way better to do “sister” activities with) when she hears whimpering.

She can tell she’s gotten used to this whole lifestyle quick because her first thought is that maybe Jessica’s masturbating and forgot to close the door. Really, that would just figure. But something compels her to call out, “Jess? You okay?”

“Wi-illa?” Jessica’s voice sounds hoarse, definitely not normal, which _could_ be from being on the edge or something (Willa wouldn’t know for sure, but it seems likely) but on the off-chance that it’s something else, Willa’s not gonna let that stop her.

She’s not sure what she’s expecting, but Jessica still in her pajamas and yet laid out across her bed writhing isn’t it.

“Holy shit,” Willa murmurs. “What’s goin’ on?”

“Don’t – know,” Jessica pants. “Feels like I’m – like I’m bein’ torn apart.”

Willa learned a few things eavesdropping on her dad and all his scientists and stuff, but she’s never heard of anything like that happening to a vampire; it’s probably stupid, but her first instinct is to ask, “How? Where’s it hurt?”

Like she’s talking to a kid she’s babysitting when they’ve just fallen off a swingset or something.

“My chest,” Jessica exclaims, pressing a hand over her heart.

“I’ll get…” And Willa jerks her head across the hall, in the direction of Eric and Nora’s door, before speeding out to do just that. It’s not locked, so she slams it open, stands there in the little gap between the closet and the door with hands on her hips, staring at the pair of older vampires (Nora is sitting with her back toward the headboard, Eric is kneeling between her spread legs).

“Willa,” Eric says dryly, climbing off of the bed and discreetly zipping his pants.

“Something’s wrong with Jessica,” Willa explains. “I don’t – she’s shouting, says her chest hurts?”

Eric and Nora exchange looks. “Her chest,” Eric repeats.

“I don’t know what the hell to do,” Willa cries. “Just come with, okay?”

Nora’s fidgeting with something behind her back and has been all this while; as soon as Willa poses that question she rolls her eyes and mumbles, “You two go ahead, I’ll be there once I’m decent.”

“Your pants are on the dresser,” Eric says oh-so-helpfully.

“I know that, I can see them,” Nora snaps. “Go on, get.”

“‘Get’?” Eric echoes with a smirk.

“ _Go_ ,” Nora shouts.

Eric turns to face his new daughter, then; she’s just the slightest bit distracted by whatever it is Nora’s doing, but once she feels his attention on her she snaps back into action.

“Right,” she says, leading him to Jessica’s room and motioning him inside. “I found her like this, all – all fuckin’ contorted in pain.”

“Jessica,” Eric says firmly. “I need you to tell me what’s going on.”

“What the – what the hell’s going on is – my heart,” Jessica hisses.

“Willa, come here,” Eric instructs. “Take a hold of her shoulders.”

Frowning, Willa climbs on the bed and does just that, muttering an apology in case it hurts; as gently as he can, Eric pries Jessica's hands from her chest. The skin over her heart has turned an unnatural purple-red, like a blush and a bruise all at once although neither of those things are technically possible; her chest is also throbbing, like an exaggerated cartoon heartbeat.

“What the hell,” Willa mutters.

“ _Nora_ ,” Eric all but roars, pulling a face as he places his hand over the redhead’s chest. “Get the fuck in here.”

Within seconds, Nora – true to her word with clothes on, it looks like it’s actually the top she’d put on the shopping list for yesterday, and rubbing her wrists idly – enters and immediately comes to Eric’s side. “Show me,” she demands.

Eric moves to reveal Jessica’s skin. “Have you seen anything like this before?” he asks.

Nora’s hand flies to her mouth, then the bow at her collar. “Good grief,” she whispers.

“What is it?” Willa asks frantically.

Nora shakes her head, frowning. “Jessica,” she says very calmly. “When did this begin?”

“Almost right after I got up,” Jessica manages. “What the hell does it matter?”

“It’s a pulling, isn’t it?” Nora asks, her voice going even softer. “A tugging on your heart.”

“Uh-huh,” Jessica mutters. “Like – like bein’…”

“Summoned,” Eric finishes. “Do you think…”

“Willa, watch her,” Nora orders before pulling Eric into the hall. “We should have suspected,” she sighs.

“Should have suspected what?” Tara asks, stepping out into the hall with Pam on her heels.

“Bill is trying to summon Jessica,” Nora explains. “I didn’t think he would be able to, being fundamentally not the same creature as the one who made her, having released her, conventional logic says otherwise, but…”

“But now he’s provin’ that wrong,” Pam supplies.

“Eric! _Nora!_ ” Willa shouts, prompting everyone to rush into the room.

Nora and Tara gasp in unison, though perhaps for different reasons; Jessica’s chest is pulsing even harder and more audibly, so much it looks like her heart is going to burst out of her ribcage.

“Let me _go_ ,” Jessica screams, wriggling under Willa’s grasp. “Let me go, I can’t take this.”

“Tara,” Nora says. “Help Willa hold her down. Eric, I assume you’ve got silver down here?”

“Chains in the –”

 _Ding-dong_.

“I’ll get it,” Pam deadpans, straightening her cardigan and bounding up the stairs.

They hear her opening the door and offering pleasantries, but it’s not three seconds after their guests cross the threshold that Jessica shrieks and writhes her way right up from under Willa and Tara’s grasps, dashing up the stairs.

“I’ve got it,” Eric says, laying a hand on Nora’s shoulder – he understands the look on her face, all dilated pupils and dropped jaw – before following after.

“What the fuck is that _smell_?” Willa asks. Her expression, Tara notes, is a perfect mirror of her aunt’s.

“That would be the fairies,” Tara sighs. “You’re gonna wanna eat them. You can’t.” She jerks her head toward the door and reaches for Willa’s hand. “C’mon, we’ve gotta go deal with this.”

Willa frowns, then takes Tara’s hand and offers her other to Nora in one go. “You okay?” she asks the older woman.

“I’ll be soon enough,” Nora mumbles. She shakes her head as if to dislodge her startled expression, then accepts Willa’s hand, and all three of them head up the stairs so joined.

“There you all are,” Pam chirps once they’re visible, and it’s kind of a funny sight to her, Tara dragging the other two women along while they cling tightly to each other to keep from acting on their impulse to attack. (Somehow it doesn’t surprise her that Nora is having as much trouble with this as the babies. Not necessarily in a judgmental way, but still.)

“Hey, Tara,” Sookie offers, still with a bit of that false timidity. She and the Bellefleur girls are crowded in the kitchen, but she’s the only one who doesn’t look particularly anxious. After a moment, she thinks the best thing to do is be polite, so she adds, “Hey, Nora.”

“Hello,” Nora mumbles, giving one of her fake smiles that don’t even look like she’s trying to make it come off convincingly. Tara just nods her own response.

“I think introductions are in order,” Eric says jovially. The tone is at odds with the way he’s got Jessica pinned to the couch, sitting straddling her hips and holding her arms down too: creepy if it weren’t so necessary, if it wasn’t taking all thousand-some years of his strength to keep Jessica, who’s basically a woman possessed, from attacking their guests.

“Oh,” Sookie replies. “Well, I know all y’all except one, and I guess that’s gonna be explained to me soon?” She turns to the Bellefleur girls, nodding for them to offer their names.

“So I’m Adilyn, and I’m the oldest.”

“I’m Braelyn, and I’m –”

Charlaine rolls her eyes. “This isn’t a reality TV show, we don’t need identifiers. I’m Charlaine.”

“And I’m Danika.”

Blue, turquoise, red, and pink. That’s as much difference as Pam can see and as much as she cares to, so she leaves it at that.

“Wonderful,” Eric declares. “You’ve already met Pam and Tara, I know. I’m Eric, underneath me at the moment is Jessica –”

“Why are you sittin’ on her?” Charlaine interrupts.

The correct response would be “so she doesn’t kill you,” but he knows better than to scare the children, so instead he says, “For the same reasons that we’re gathering together, indirectly. And because I didn’t have a chance to grab the chains yet.” He raises an eyebrow at Pam – she knows where they are, and would she be a dear?

She disappears for a moment to take care of it, and Tara jumps in to take over the introductions since now she’s the only other vampire in the room who’s not about to lose their shit. “Anyway, beside me is Willa,” she says, “and beside her is Nora.”

“She’s the one who wanted to eat Sookie,” Braelyn whispers, looking a little confused.

Of course, Nora hears that, and it causes her to frown. It’s not like it’s not true, but – still. She’s making an effort. They all are, with the slight exception of Jessica, who can’t very well control her lack of effort at the moment.

“Unfortunately, the so-called god chose this night to try to summon and influence his progeny,” Eric continues, explaining it in that glib way of his. “We’ll be able to work regardless, and she should snap out of it soon enough. Until then…”

Pam returns from the bottom floor with an appropriately-labeled box of SILVER CHAINS DO NOT OPEN UNLESS IN CASE OF EMERGENCY. “Would one of you be a doll and pop open that drawer next to the fridge?” she says to the girls. “I need the gloves in there.”

Danika’s the closest, so she obliges, though she’s not quite sure why (all of them are still getting used to the radio silence that vampires provide, and none of them particularly like it).

“Peachy,” Pam mutters, pulling the gloves on and opening the box. Soon she’s dragging the chains out and laying them out over Jessica’s ankles and wrists, though, and the girls all nod along like it makes perfect sense (they hear things, they’re not totally ignorant). Once Eric climbs off, another chain is laid over Jessica’s midriff.

“Now,” Eric says, all business. “Let’s bring you five up to speed.”


End file.
